Early Years Leaders Responding to Challenges of Effective Leadership - Essay Example

?How Do You As An Early Years Leader Or Potential Early Years Leader Demonstrate Effective Leadership To Respond To The Challenges And Changes The Sector Faces? Within Your Answer You Must Refer To Current Literature and Relevant Theories Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Early Years Leadership and Management- Theories and Literature 4 Critical Discussion of the Factors that Influence Leadership and Management in the Early Year’s Sector 8 Government Policies and Leadership in Early Years 8 Local Authority Policy and Early Years Leadership 9 Local Community and Early Years Leadership 10 Training and Experiences and Early Years Leadership 10 Other Challenges and Factors 11 Strategies of a Leader to Ensure Effective Operation of a Team 11 Conclusion 13 References 15 Introduction Leadership is often regarded as the process in which, one person influences others individually or in a group, generally denoted as subordinates or followers, towards conducting any activities in an efficient manner. Effective leadership is often deemed as quite an important element that is essential in the successful accomplishment of any particular goal. Basically, people understand a leader as a person who is followed by others for his/her ideals and strong principles. Leadership is also a concept of organising people and leading them towards meeting set targets of any particular work. In every domain of the society, the role and the importance of a leader are quite significant and can hardly be ignored. Some of the major roles of leaders include leading, commanding, guiding as well as influencing people (Daly & et. al., 2004). Similar to the importance of leadership in various domains of the society, its significance in the Early Year’s sector is also considered as quite vital. It will be worth mentioning in this regard that leadership in the early years is quite different and critical as compared to their importance in other sections of the society. Contextually, it would be vital to obtain a critical understanding of the concept, approach and characteristics of leadership in the Early Years sector. A leader in the Early Year’s sector plays an imperative role to provide a right direction to the children in their early stage of life and train them towards a better future. Their role in particular involves inspiring children and teenagers with the clear and precise vision that could enable them to face the challenges and changes that will be occurring inevitably in their life will as they keep growing (Janet, 2006). This study will primarily intend to demonstrate the various aspects of effective leadership that is essential with regard to deal with the challenges and changes usually emerging in this Early Year’s sector. In the process, the discussion will also evaluate the views and theories of various studies that are associated with the aspect of Early Year’s leadership and management. The paper will also highlight some of the challenges that prevail in the Early Year’s leadership sector and accordingly certain strategies will be developed to deal with the same. Discussion In the recent years, extensive research has been conducted on the early years of children and the impacts of the adults that are associated with them in their beginning stage of learning. Children in this age usually follow those people who are closely in association with them in their daily activities comprising education, play and other activities, which further influences their futuristic goals and vision in life. In this regard, the people associated with the children, who include parents and teachers, have a key role to play as Early Year’s leaders. Early Years Leadership and Management- Theories and Literature Children in their early years are often observed to be reluctant to perceive themselves as leaders or managers in the near future, certainly as they lack such a complex understanding as adolescents or adults. Correspondingly, the role of the Early Year’s leaders comes into existence. Leadership in the early years mainly include the skills and abilities of individuals as leaders in the Early Year’s sector. It is believed that leadership in any sector including the Early Year’s sector is not a process that is conducted by one person; rather, it is a collaborative effort that contributes towards effective results on the accomplishment of the set target. To be noted, development of the people who possess the skills and characteristics of a leader is quite essential and should be given highest priority in this sector. It is primarily owing to the fact that children and teenagers are the future of the society and their development is quite a vital prospect altogether to assure long-run social stability and community well-being. In this regard, teachers and parents who are involved with daily activities of the children and teenagers are bestowed the responsibility to become leaders for the Early Years and develop their future in an efficient manner. It is believed that managing the transformation in life of children in the Early Year sector is a daunting task and only leaders with enhanced vision will prove to be efficient in this overcoming the challenge (Daly & et. al., 2004). It is worth mentioning in this context that children, in their early years, have the need to get the best start in their life, which can only be possible with the help of effective leadership of the people associated with them, to further guide and lead them in their activities (Clark & et. al., 2012). In this regard, it will be crucial to mention that there are several skills and abilities that are essential in leaders to ensure effectiveness in the Early Year’s sector. In the past, leaders in the Early Year’s sector had a limited role to play lacking adequate scope to perform. However, in the present day context, there has been a major shift in leadership practices in the Early Year’s sector that has further brought significant differences in the activities that leaders perform in this sector today. In modern day context, there has been a considerable intervention of the government, local authority and community in the Early Year’s sector, which further makes it crucial for leaders to deal with various challenges and changes posed by the aforementioned authorities in this sector. It has also been noted that the leaders for the Early Years are liable and accountable for the later life chances to be obtained by the children and opportunities, which they will need to control through their approach of providing education, care and learning to the children along with their families and communities (O'Sullivan, 2009). Hence, this depicts the importance of the role of leaders in the Early Year’s sector. As depicted in the earlier section of the discussion, schools and other childcare settings are mainly responsible for shaping the future of the early years. However, the approaches of the leaders and operators in this sector are largely affected by the government policies, which will be discussed elaborately in the later discussion, as it further forces to change the approach of the leaders in this sector altogether. Observably, every single person, who is associated with the work related to children and families, carry a burden of responsibility. Although it is a fact that working with and for the betterment of children in itself is quite rewarding and a responsibility of privilege to the overall community well-being, there are certain inevitable challenges to the roles of a leader in the Early Year setting. Principally, leaders in the Early Years setting comprise of responsibilities towards the society, towards the children and their families and towards the community altogether. It is believed that every child in the society is an asset and also a guarantee to the future stability of the community on the whole. Thus, the leaders in this sector have the accountability to provide their maximum effort towards the development of the children in their early age, which is indirectly a contribution towards the society. Contextually, leaders need to take care of their own self and enhance their approach of professionalism in their activities on a gradual basis, so that they can contribute to the society. In this regard leaders in the Early Year’s sector are encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle for themselves, consider safe practices, contribute positively to the community and the future economy altogether. These are included as their responsibility as a leader in the early Year’s sector. Furthermore, the leaders in this sector also have the need to ensure positive contribution towards the children and their families, which is also one of the most significant tasks of their leadership. In this context, leaders have the need to depict the task that the children should conduct at any particular age, which is quite likely to contribute towards enhancing their responsible characteristics and well-built behavioural traits (Jones & Pound, 2008). Leaders in this sector also have the responsibility to maintain or develop strong and trusted relationship with the children or their families so that they can feel safe to discover their world around the leaders. This approach will also enable leaders in this sector to know about the feelings of the children, which include both positives and negatives, so that they can steer the Early Year’s towards a favourable direction. Moreover, leaders in the Early Year’s sector also have the responsibility to develop the children’s relationship with the parents and convey them about all the information that can in turn assist them to help their children towards the continuous development of their personal characteristics. Leaders in the Early Year’s sector also have a vital responsibility towards the community. As an educator or a leader, it is crucial to understand the varying perspectives of the people in the community. They need to take diverse approaches by the thinking of various communities. For example, in small or poor communities, children and their families travel long distances for their work and education owing to which, they develop their own perception. On the other hand, people in the rich or large communities mainly prefer to live among themselves with minimum interactions with others with all their luxury and high standards of living, which can further impose strong impacts on the behavioural pattern of the children and perceptions. Contextually, leaders will have to deal with the children and families of both the communities in a different manner (Jones & Pound, 2008). Hence, it is clear that leaders in this sector has quite significant responsibilities and accountability altogether. It is evident that there are several forms of theories, models and styles of leadership that prevail in the modern day scenario. Among the various models or theories of leadership, the majors include situational, behavioural, descriptive and participative forms of leadership. However, leadership in the Early Year’s sector mainly practice the distributive forms of leadership. Distributive leadership is one of the most prominent ideas, especially in the educational sector. Fundamentally, in distributive leadership, one person becomes a leader of an entire group, which further comprise different subordinate leaders. All these sub-ordinate leaders are controlled and directed by one top leader. Observably, in this type of leadership, leaders share their duties and responsibilities with more than two people owing to which, it is often regarded as shared or collective leadership. In educational setting of the Early Year’s sector, owner of the institutions which is also a leader, command and control the other leaders (usually teachers) working under his/her directives (Nigel & et. al., 2003). This can further be considered as an example of distributive leadership in the early Year’s settings. Critical Discussion of the Factors that Influence Leadership and Management in the Early Year’s Sector It has been depicted in the earlier sections of the discussion that leadership and management in the Early Year’s sector are largely influenced by certain factors. Some of those factors include government policies, local authority policy, local community and training and placement among others. These are broadly discussed hereunder. Government Policies and Leadership in Early Years It has been noted that government of every nation have today become quite concerned in prioritising the aspect of Early Year’s leadership. Accordingly they intend to develop polices to enhance the status of the practices in the Early Year’s leadership. This approach of the government has been further influencing considerable changes in this sector over the recent years (Mistry & Sood, 2012). In this regard, it will be vital to mention that in the year 1998, the government of UK came up with the national child care strategy to meet the needs of the children in the Early Year’s sector, implying a greater need for effective leadership. The strategy intends to help families to access appropriate childcare and likewise, enable them to meet the needs of their children. Contextually, the strategy of the government also requires the leaders in this particular sector to develop the quality of their operations and deliver noteworthy services. Apart from this, the government also aimed at implementing schemes related to quality assurance for the utmost development of the Early Year’s sector. This scheme of the government illustrated certain criteria that should be met by the settings in the childcare sector (Daly & et. al., 2004). These approaches of the government influence favourably to the leaders in this sector as they need to develop and enhance their efficiency upto to considerable extent. Local Authority Policy and Early Years Leadership It is worth mentioning in this context that leaders and managers in the Early Year’s sector should also be aware of the policies enacted by the local authority. Leaders in this sector should be readily available to manage any sort of change as an effective change agent in compliance with the enacted measures by the local authorities in securing the well-being interests of the community. Childcare in the early years sector are strongly influenced by many external factors among which, the intervention of local authority policies is quite prominent. Apart from the government polices and schemes there are also ever changing policies and procedures of local authority that childcare setting in a particular geographical locality needs to comply with and hence, causes substantial influence on the Early Year’s sector leadership practices (Nupponen, 2005). Local Community and Early Years Leadership Needs of the local community, also qualify as a crucial aspect, which should be significantly considered when implementing leadership and management strategies in the Early Year’s sector. It has been observed that leaders in the Early Year’s sectors have the need to build their operational policies and procedures in context of the community they operate in. Some of the factors of community that influences the operations of the Early Year’s leadership and management community include the socio-economic stature of the community, regulatory environment of the community, ideologies of the community and the economic environment of the community among others. Moreover, in this context, it is also important that childcare and other settings in the Early Year’s sector needs to assure that they are providing quality services to the community and hence, their reputation in the community is largely determined on the basis of these aspects (Nupponen, 2005). Training and Experiences and Early Years Leadership It is believed that leaders in the Early Year’s sector need training along with proper experiences in order ensure gradual and effective development of management and leadership. Subsequently, the accountability involved with the activities of the leaders in the childcare setting increases manifolds, which further mandates training for developing efficient leaders. However, this has become an issue in the Early Year’s sectors as leaders are currently observed to decipher a certain degree of reluctance in gaining formal training, which further influence their activities in a negative or unfavourable manner. In-fact, it is known that most of the leaders in the Early Year’s setting have no professional training for leadership and management. Contextually, it is believed that only those candidates should be placed in the Early Year’s who specialises under the specified degree after being trained adequately in leadership and management in the Early Year’s setting (Nupponen, 2005). Other Challenges and Factors There are several other factors that influence the operations of the leaders in the Early Year’s sector. The aspect of staffing has become an important factor in the current phenomenon that affects leadership in this sector. To be noted, it is important to recruit staffs that are efficient as well as loyal at the same time towards the childcare setting. This will allow leaders to bring its human resources together and steer them towards one particular goal. This may also impose major influences on the effectiveness of leadership and management. Moreover, the factors for finding new ways to deal with the diverse needs and requirements of the children and families may also have an impact on the leadership and management activities in the Early Year’s sector (Nupponen, 2005). Strategies of a Leader to Ensure Effective Operation of a Team From a generalised perspective to the concerned issue in this study, it can be comprehended that leadership and management in the Early Year’s sector has become quite significant in the recent decade. Observably, there are several challenges that leaders need to deal with in order to enhance their operations and accomplish the intended goals. Accordingly, leaders in this particular sector need to take certain strategies that can allow them to ensure effective performance of the team lead by them. In this regard, it has been noted that leaders in this sector needs to identify the collective vision of the team and apparently convey the same to the other members engaged in motivating, controlling and steering the children in their early years. This will ensure that there is no state of confusion in the team about their targets and responsibilities that are needed to be adhered by the leaders (Siraj-Blatchford & et. al., 2006). Furthermore, leaders in this particular sector will also need to take strategies, ensuring mutual understanding among the members of the team and the assigned leader. Leaders in the Early Year’s sector must also ensure that the set goal has a common meaning and importance within every member of the team. This strategy of the leader will make sure that each of the team members has equal dedication towards accomplishing the objectives of the team. This might also be an effective strategy in assuring positive and effective performance of the team in the long-run. The leaders in the early years must therefore try to develop a team with utmost competency. As observed from the previous discussions of the paper, principle functions of leaders and staffs in the childcare and other settings of the Early Year’s involve many responsibilities. For instance, the team should be formed with members having considerable training and experience so that they can perform effectively with little or no error. This might also turn out to be a good strategy towards building an effective team. Furthermore, leaders in this sector must also work cohesively to make all the team members familiar with the relevant governmental and community policies that directly or indirectly influences their activities. This is often accounted as one of the most vital strategies of team leaders as these external factors have the maximum influence on the approach of the childcare setting in the Early Year’s sector. Effective communication is another aspect that directly associates with the performance of a team. Leaders in this particular sector need to convey information to the team members in an apparent manner so that there remains no confusion amid the team and thereby, each of the team members is enabled to deliver their best. Besides, leaders in this particular sector must also ensure professional development of the team members on a continuous process. In this regard, strategies must be taken to provide proper training to the team members and embed the sense of professionalism among them (Siraj-Blatchford & et. al., 2006). Conclusion From the overall discussion it is apparent that leadership is quite a significant concept in context of the modern day scenario where showing right direction to people is crucial. Contextually, the aspect of leadership and management is also of utmost significance in the Early Year’s sector. Observably, children are the assets to guarantee community well-being from a futuristic perspective owing to which their effective development is quite crucial for the overall society. In this regard, the role of the leaders in this sector becomes quite important. Early Year’s leaders hence need to work towards ensuring the ultimate welfare of children from and make them ready to face the challenges and changes in life. Leaders in this sector also have the responsibility to build healthy and trusted relationship with the children so that they can feel safe in conveying their feelings to the leaders. This will further allow leaders to encourage positive feelings amid the children founding a base for their competent growth in their later life. Furthermore, the leaders in this sector will also need to maintain healthy relationship with the parents and convey them periodically about the latest development that they can utilise in assisting their child. Nevertheless, leaders in this sector also have to deal with certain challenges that directly influence their activities. Some of these challenges include governmental policies, local communities, reluctance to implement change and personal developmental needs identified among leaders. Contextually, strategies are also required to be framed in a well-planned manner to deal with the challenges and ensure leaders that the performance of the team will be effective. These strategies will mainly include some of the approaches that leaders should adopt in dealing with the challenges of leadership and management in this sector mainly focusing on child psychology along with the parents’ knowledge and interest in leading their child towards betterment. Apart from the strategies mentioned above, proper action plans will also be required to be developed in order to control and manage the multidisciplinary factors associated with Early Year’s leadership. These leadership activities will further be helpful in ensuring that the adopted strategies are executed in a systematic manner within a specified period of time towards the set goal. In addition the leadership vision considered should be unambiguously communicated to other participants of the team including parents and teachers so as to gain efficiency in overcoming the above identified challenges. This will also act as a vital input that is expected to enhance the leadership operations and the team altogether. Moreover, analysing the nature and characteristics of the children and developing learning mode for them might also be a good prospect in fruitful leadership approach. References Clark, M. & et. al., 2012. Reconceptualizing Leadership in the Early Years. McGraw-Hill International. Daly, M. & et. al., 2004. Early Years Management in Practice. Heinemann. Janet, M., 2006. Effective Leadership and Management In The Early Years. McGraw-Hill International. Jones, C. & Pound, L., 2008. Leadership and Management in the Early Years: From Principles to Practice. McGraw-Hill International. Mistry, M. & Sood, K., 2012. Management in Education. Sage, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 28-37. Nigel, B. & et. al., 2003. Distributed Leadership: A Review of Literature. The Open University, pp. 1-58. Nupponen, H., 2005. Leadership and Management in Child Care Services: Contextual Factors and Their Impact on Practice. Queensland University of Technology, pp. 1-250. O'Sullivan, J., 2009. Leadership Skills in the Early Years: Making a Difference. Continuum. Siraj-Blatchford, I. & et. al., 2006. Effective Leadership in the Early Years Sector (ELEYS) Study. Introduction, pp. 1-31. Read More